ejourney with technokids

The students are excited, I am nervous! Time to prepare my lessons for today and it is taking me quite a bit of thought and preparation.
Why would that make me decidedly nervous, you might ask? Well, I am in Australia and my students attend Nashwaaksis Middle School / Devon Middle School School District 18 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. They are studying a unit on Oceana and about to study Australia and NZ. So, I will talk to them about life in Australia, our cultures, our school, my small rural town and the farm we live on.
Their teacher, Mr Chad Ball put up a bulletin message on his facebook page, seeking potential questions from the students and some of them follow. I think this would make an excellent exercise for my students to complete the answers to, on their individual posts.

• Katie: What kind of animals do you have there? And how are they different from the ones in Canada?
• Barret: This is my question, are the schools in districts like they are here? Is there early immersion there as well?
• Caity: what are the two most commun languages used in Australia?
• Craig: I think that it would be cool if we could possibly get a person inAustralia to do a live webcast in class.
• Daniella: If you were in the outback is it true that there are houses out there that are under the ground???? If so how were they made?
• Amanda: What sports do you play there? Any sports you do that are different from around the world? What are the most popular?
• Megan: I was wondering whats so special about Australia ? Whats so special down there ? If you were walking down the street, what would people there be wearring ? ( shorts, jeans, hoodies, t-shirts ? ) What is your favorite thing about Australia ?
• Adam: How many animals are indigenise to Australian?
• Emily: How many years do you go to school before colledge or university?
• Tyler: Can you sand surf in Australia? if so Have you?
• Jane: Do they have all four seasons in Australia? And what are the differences between our seasons and theirs?
• Katelyn: Are the foods in Australia the same as in Canada or do they eat weird things like ants ???
• Lauren: umm… well i guess a good question might be… have you lived in australia all of your life?? If not, how long have you been there?? or maybe what school do you teach at there?? (just some ideas)
• Cassie and Morgan: What do they wear? What type of food do they eat? Are there places that are better to live in than others, if so why? Are all of there catch phrases
• “CROYKIE”? Does the Kangaroo population in the outback outmatch the human population?
• Patrick: is there a different way of teaching in Australia,then there is here in Canada?
• Laura: what are the common sports that they play in Australia.
• Rene: do aussies have like pet sheep and stuff .. any different animals then cats or dogs…
• Nicole: this will sound random, but like in the olden days families used to be huge (with a lot of people) and have lots of kids, now a days the families are smaller, so down in Australia are the families larger then our normal families?
• Chantele: what language they speack most other then english, and what kind of cutlures?
• Sarah: Why is their english so much different then ours, with words like ‘mate’ and stuff?
• Stephen: Whats it like to have all those weird animals around?
• Hannah: what knid of animals do you have there? are they all the same as here? are there school’s or just class room? what language do they speak there?
• Gwen: What are some of the biggest cultural differences between our country and yours?? Or i it mostly the same?